Starr Resigns as Superintendent

By Ketki Chauhan ’16

Superintendent Dr. Joshua Starr served his last day as superintendent on February 13. For many few weeks, news spread about the possibility of Starr’s contract with the county not being renewed. Various news outlets including Bethesda Magazine, cited that the board members were divided on whether or not to renew the contract with four board members voting in favor of renewing Starr’s contract and the other four voting against. Starr’s contract expires on June 30. For it to be renewed, five out of the eight board members, a majority, needed to vote in favor of Starr. News finally ceased when Starr did not send a Letter of Intent, thus indicating that he will not be pursuing another contract as MCPS superintendent.

Starr’s contract was a part of the agenda on the Board of Education meeting held on February 3. On February 1, Starr was to decide whether or not to pursue renewing his contract and by March 1, the board would have had to come to a decision. As stressed by president of the board Patricia O’Neill, who sent an email out to MCPS staff members, and Student Member of the Board Dahlia Huh, the board came to a mutual agreement. All board members, including Huh, voted unanimously to grant Starr release from his contract. Despite his early release, he will continue to receive pay until his contract expires.

Interim superintendent Larry Bowers has replaced Starr. Bowers previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of MCPS  and has worked with the county for 37 years. “We must intensify our focus on improving literacy and mathematics instruction to ensure every child has a strong foundation of knowledge, skills, and learning processes,” Bowers wrote in a message to the staff. “We must work with state and county leaders to ensure we have the funding to provide all students with the education they need and deserve.”

The board is conducting a nationwide search for a new superintendent by June. The county has chosen Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to lead the search as the firm has helped the county apppoint both former superintendent Jerry Weast and Starr. The new superintendent is to be sworn in by July 1.

On February 10, the Board of Education voted to start high school and middle school twenty minutes later for the 2015-2016 school year. In 2012, Starr created a work group to study school start times and proceeded to push high school start times back. His previous models had an estimated cost of twenty-one million dollars, but the approved model’s net cost is zero dollars.

The Board of Education and its members have still not officially stated a reason as to why there was opposition towards renewing Starr’s contract. The Washington Post, however, reported that Starr’s approach to closing the achievement gap may not have been sufficient enough for the board members or his handling of sexual abuse cases in the county. Starr’s opposition towards standardized testing may also have caused disagreement within the board.

“I always tell new leaders coming up, the first rule of leadership is know yourself. I'm going to spend some time doing that over the next little while, thinking, What it is I want to do for the rest of my career? Where can I make the most impact? What are the greatest needs out there?” Starr says in an interview with nPRed.